Statement by HUD Secretary Preston on GSEs

IAS360 House Price Index Rises AgainMortgagePress.comdefault management, residential collateral valuation, appreciation and decline, House Price Index Integrated Asset Services, LLC (IAS, www.iasreo.com), a default management company and residential collateral valuation, recently released its IAS360 House Price Index for July 2008. The monthly report, which includes the most current and granular data available in the industry, showed a 0.9% appreciation in house prices on a national level in July, and a -11.4% decline from July 2007 to July 2008. The IAS360 House Price Index is a comprehensive housing index tracking monthly change in the median sales price of detached single-family residences across the U.S. The index, based on all arms-length transactions, tracks data at a "neighborhood" level, which is then rolled up to report on the changes in 360 counties, nine census divisions, four regions, and the nation overall. The IAS360 House Price Index is delivered on a monthly basis. "The IAS360 HPI is unique in that it's not a seasonally adjusted or smoothed index," says Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. "This combined with its timeliness and granularity give lenders, investors and consumers a peek at the raw changes in home price forecasts from the front lines." At the broader census region level, results for July show three out of four U.S. census regions experiencing gains in house prices, with only the West region continuing to show a decline. On a year-over-year basis, however, all four census regions are still posting losses, the most notable being the West, the only region with a double-digit decline. Results for the month of July at the Census Division level showed six out of nine U.S. census divisions posting gains during July, but only two—East North Central, which posted the largest jump in July, and West South Central, which posted the largest declinehave appreciated year over year. For more information, visit www.iasreo.com.